The soaring is never ending

There is so much flying going on here at Aboyne that we are losing track of who is doing what. Lots of flying on Wednesday and Will could be seen at 22,000 feet in his K6; this flight qualified for a Diamond, but Will is unwilling to sponsor the BGA with the claim fee.

See the BGA ladder as most of the flights are appearing when we get the time to load them. Booker GC is leading the height ladder and it doesn't look like anyone is going to catch us.

First flights today had a great view of the first snow on the Cairngorms, but the low wave faded away at lunchtime and most landed back.

Another round of flights above 10,000 feet in the afternoon, with 315 launching for 90 minute flights all day long.

318 has been busy with Ashley and Rolf flying this morning and Robert Turner flying it out to Loch Muick this evening.

Some great air-to-air shots from our new friends from the gliding club at Bremen. Attention seeking 315 crept up and got into the shots.

Adrian Hegner arrived yesterday, but despite this the weather is still good. Glyn has booked first flight of the day in 315 tomorrow so there must be more good wave on the way.

Toad in the hole at Birkellun!

Aboyne Pics

Quick escape

While flying we must keep a good look out..................

15,000ft over Ballater

Arne Over Tarland

Try and set that shot up again.....

Tuesday Climbs and Cloud

Another good wave day North of the border. A little too windy for cross country with 60 Kts at 15,000 feet and lots of height lost when crossing in-to-wind wave bars. Lots of flights, with 315 going well above 10k on five flights.
Cloudbase was 4k and the gaps kept easing closed only to open up again. A few of us climbing to around 15k in the strong lift then descending below cloudbase only to repeat the fun later. Best climbs, as so often, just North of the lochs.
Some launched late in the day for some filming, the results are in the editing suite, hopefully there will be a new Aboyne video soon.
Daily heights and flights, provisional. (Flights will be on the ladder soon).
Mike & Russell, 315, 13,500ft
Ashley, 318, 15,400ft and then a second flight to 8,500ft
Mike & Arne, 315, 13,000ft
Denis 370 (evening flight to 10k)
Graham & Mike 315, 13,500ft
Mike & others, details to follow
Barry, JDV, 19,200ft, not quite a Diamond.
Bob, 279, 19,400ft (17,200 gain)
Bob, 208, 15,000ft
Robert & Mike, 315, 13,500

As I write this on Weds morning, 315 is climbing in wave for the second time today and 118 has just launched, so we're all off to do it again.
Rolf has arrived taking Booker numbers up to fifteen and the forecast is looking good for a busy few days.
Photos to follow.

Aboyne on Monday

Aboyne Wave Working Well

Over the weekend the first group of fourteen Booker pilots arrived at Deeside Gliding club for the annual wave soaring expedition.
Sunday was wet, but it dried out enough for the first round of model flying. Will Ellis demonstrating his electrified Discus, Pete Wyld dug out his micro video camera and we taped it to the Cub. In flight video to follow.

In the evening we had the first group dinner in Birkelunn; we know how keen our blog readers are to hear about the culinary aspects of any expedition. A Roast Beef dinner of the finest quality, ten out of ten for Chefs Will and Graham. Will's melt-in-the-mouth steamed treacle and marmalade pudding ensuring that we met our daily calorie allowance.


Monday was the first flying day. A classic wave sky (see the photos). Team Booker were first to rig despite not arriving till 08:30, Ashley and Mike launching around 9 in 315.

After a few fettling issues for some private owners most flew.
The roll call of achievements follows.

Bob D, 208, 17,623 ft over the lochs.

Mike & Ashley, 315. 10,000 feet, Lochnagar then Braemar.
Denis, 370, 10,000 ft, Lochnagar then Braemar.
Jane, 118, Flat tyre, barograph inop, oxygen broke, then 10,500 Ft over Cambus o May.

Bob S, 279, 8,000 ft, Ballater
Mike & Robert T, 315, (TBA)

Will, 10,000 ft, Lochnagar & Braemar - Distance flight of the day!

Will is flying his K6 and the wind at 6,000 feet was 50 Knots SW!

The circuits were sporty, and we packed up when the cloud arrived after lunch.
Not sure about tomorrow, the wind may be too strong, but might be OK with an early start.

Photos courtesy of Ashley Birkbeck and Robert Turner.

September sizzling summary and October openers

With headlines like that I should be consigned to the News of the World - lucky it is no more.

September really did deliver an Indian Summer and there were only 4 days in September when the club didn't fly. Over 450 launches were achieved during the month that inlcuded several cross country flights late into the month and a significant amount of soaring.

Several instructors have been frantically getting hours in before renewals expire (the message here is to do it sooner!) and the Bronze course run by Richard C was a success with Phil Binnee and John Lambe getting their Bronze badges, 1st solo for Neil Parkinson and type conversions with Ali Elliott on the K18 and Sam Gervais on the Junior. This list doesn't include the other achievements already mentioned in earlier September Blogs.

Jonathan Morris chose Booker as the best place to learn aerobatics having been awarded an Air League scholarship and went away having achieved his Basic level award under Graham Saw's excellent tuition.

The 1st October arrived hot and sunny and even though a large contingent of the club are wending their way to Aboyne, there were still 38 launches on one of hottest October days known. The sunshine brought out the T21 and all the flying was done in shirtsleves.
Jim White giving a pre-flight brief (?)

Jonathan Morris after gaining his Aerobatic badge

Chris and Jeremy take to the skies in the T21

Vannessa Faulkner after her Trial Lesson that she won in a Borlase School Raffle

Prize winning flight

On Saturday we welcomed Claire, the winner of the competition in the Riverside Journal, who came to take up her prize of a trial lesson. It looks from the smile as though she enjoyed it.

Hurricane Sunday

It was a busy day at the launch point despite the approach of Hurricane Katia. The instability gave opportunities for long soaring flights for some members, and our Trial Lesson and Course members also made good use of the conditions. One of our visitors was Frances who was celebrating her 90th birthday with a glider flight. Her family's concerns about possible turbulence were brushed aside when we learned that she was just back from some off-roading in the Falklands. We look forward to her returning with some of her 10 pin bowling gang.

Booker at the Henley show one more time

We had a good outing to the Henley show today. The cold front produced only a few gusts and some spots of rain and we had plenty of visitors to our stand whom we look forward to seeing again at the launch point very soon.

Many thanks to Davids F and H and John H for helping out, and to Bobs D and S for help with setting up and taking down the stand.

Good start to September

The season hasn't finished (yet). The 1st September brought a reasonable forecast and several members took advantage of what the day offered. First cumulus clouds were popping before 09:30 and the day looked to be over developing but fortunately didn't even if the cloud base took a long time to get above 2,500ft. JIM, JC and 315 set off on 270k tasks, first into the Cotswolds and then across to East Anglia before returning home. Paul Wigginton (this seasons tuggy) also completed his Silver Distance flying a Peg to Enstone. Not the best or easiest of days but great fun for those that flew.

315 landing back after BOB-SHP-GRW-BIC-BO1-BOO

Other achievements during the week include conversions into the Pegasus 318 for John Lambie and Stuart Whiteside. Today also resulted in a first solo for Nick Merveldt in CFA which he also managed to soar for 40 minutes. Congratulations to them.

Nick Mervelt after his first solo with instructor Emily Todd

The overcast and low cloudbase prevented launching early on Saturday morning and we were fortunate to see a good formation take off of the Fiat G-46 and Yak 50 to then join up with another Yak 50 presumably off to an air display somewhere. All didn't go quite to plan for the Fiat which suffered a minor technical issue with its undercarriage and it had to return to Booker - the pilot dealt with the situation very professionally and it was off flying again later in the day.